Xandra Gregory

Posted By Xandra on June 29, 2010

…the one that can render PDFs with annotation capability without making the eyes bleed.

It seems we’ve been thinking about ereaders all wrong. Along with thinking about ebooks all wrong. Actually, I shouldn’t say “all wrong” since we’ve had a lot of “right” in there, collectively speaking (and any new ventures are built on the mounds of failed attempts). But let’s start with the ebooks, and move on to the ereaders, and why the past, as much if not more than, the future, will drive the ereader.

Follow me below the fold, along with a hat-tip to Jane at Dear Author’s Sunday EBook News article, which prompted me to ask Mr. Xandra, “why don’t we use the Kindle more?” To which he replied, “Because I read PDFs, and it sucks at rendering PDFs.”
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Category: An Author's Life, Charge of the G33k Brigade, Deep Thoughts | No Comments »
Tags: ebooks, ereaders, tech

Posted By Xandra on June 18, 2010

Yes. My posting has drastically and tragically plummeted. Sadly, it’s because I don’t really have much to say–I tend to keep my uninteresting bits offline so that I’m not actively boring people as I go along. My goal is to make the world a more interesting place, not fill it up with boring crap nobody cares about. Yes, you may thank me for that.

But I did figure that the six of you who might be looking for an update of what life’s been like on Planet X(andra).

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Category: An Author's Life, Blog Madness, Deep Thoughts | No Comments »
Tags: epublishing, Publishing, Writing

Posted By Xandra on May 22, 2010

In case you haven’t been paying attention, I am a writer who is also a mother to young children. Oftentimes, those children need to be directed towards productive activities (as opposed to activities that involve paint, carpeting, electricity under uncontrolled circumstances and/or cats under uncontrolled circumstances). May is one of those months where that direction is a little more hands-on. School is nearing its end, and the fidgets are here to stay. And if you don’t think an 8 year old knows what “phoning it in” means, you haven’t met mine. They know summer and vacation are in the air–they can smell it the way they smell fear from childless adults (and choose to gravitate towards them whether they welcome it or not). It takes a careful eye to bring them back into focus and remind them that it’s not over yet. They still have to stay on task and pay attention to school, even for those last few days or weeks, and finish what they started.

Same goes with manuscripts and characters.

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Category: An Author's Life, Writing, Writing Process | No Comments »
Tags: drafts, story theme

Posted By Xandra on April 25, 2010

Sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield…

Today, I’m the bug. On the interstate. I can see a deadline approaching (with the word “Peterbilt” emblazoned across the grille) and I’m flapping my little ladybug wings as hard and fast as I can over the keyboard in hopes that, like a quantum butterfly, I can effect change. Mostly the change from “X words” to “(X+5000) words*2^The End” words.

This one is research-intensive. I’m constantly tabbed-over to wikipedia, and Google Books (and lemmetellya–whatever issues I as an author or the Author’s Guild or publishing companies have with Google Books, it is an INVALUABLE research tool for extant material and out of print primary source material. If I had to plumb the library for this, it’d be weeks and probably more than a couple bucks). Also, there are a hundred and ten other sites I’m constantly flitting to and from, including the library in meatspace.

The trick to researching is that you only research what you need to continue. It’s too easy to dig into something just for its own sake and end up two weeks into the project and not have written a damn word. But I got a handle on this one.  And now I’m gonna go read a little bit more.  For research purposes. No, really, I need this…

Category: An Author's Life, Writing, Writing Process, Xandra | No Comments »
Tags: deadlines, research

Posted By Xandra on April 9, 2010

We humans are creatures of habit. We favor routines, the familiar, the safe. Before it breeds contempt, familiarity breeds comfort. When we shop in the physical world, we favor a single commercial venue where many things can be found. This is not by accident–it costs more in resources for even the least technologically-advanced society to have to accumulate resources from multiple locations than it does from a single or few locations. Whether it’s a fertile watering hole or a bazaar or souk close to the docks, a trading post along a rail line, or a big-box store in a strip mall (or a big-box store that is a strip mall), we like our one-stop shopping.

And yet, when our one stop is the computer in front of us, it isn’t enough. Instead of one internet, we seek out one site. Now, granted, the modern version of resources (credit cards and identity) are still being preserved, but I have to wonder what it is in our logic that says a company that produces a product on the internet needs another company to distribute that product on the internet, when both companies are merely placing “buy” links and shopping carts to the same virtual product. With distributor discounts ranging from 15% to 65% I’m forced to ask, where’s the value?

In the print publishing world, distributors have an important job and many expenses that justify the distributor discount. Shipping, storage of physical stock, placement at actual points of sale, inventory management–none of that comes free, and I get that (oh, how I get that, from my days in lean manufacturing, I get that). But where is the cost associated with storing and shipping electrons? Are site hosting and credit card processing really worth 65% of a book’s cover price?

Distribution between creation and retail is a necessary model in physical stock inventory, but not so much in the digital world, and we need to think differently about the supply chain both as producers and consumers, or we risk missing an opportunity to redefine value and streamline a system that has been static and change-resistant, simply because we are creatures of habit.

Category: Charge of the G33k Brigade, Xandra | No Comments »
Tags: digital distribution, ebook shopping

Posted By Xandra on April 2, 2010

For the past week here at Casa de Xandra, it’s been Spring Break. And for once, it actually feels like Spring Break and not, “gee, let’s give the kids a week off school when the temperatures plummet, only two inches of snow falls on the ground (not enough for sledding), and the sky is the same color as a navy gunboat so they can be bored inside with their moms for ten whole days!” It’s been warm. Balmy, even. We’ve had the windows open, and the raging season-long sinus infections show signs of vacating the premises (finally!), and we’ve even gotten (gasp!) a little ahead in the yardwork. I think I may faint at how on-the-ball we are as a family.  We’ve actually gotten garden boxes built, and there’s real dirt in ‘em! I have seeds in my sunroom trying to sprout (and yes, on this, I know that if I were a gonzo gardener like my good friend Roxy Harte, I would have started my seedlings in January, but alas, I am only mildly gonzo–or mildly crazy, given the size of the pile of peat moss on my driveway). And this year, come hell or high water, the cabbage worms will NOT be victorious!

Part of the reason we are so on the ball this year is that We Have A Plan. Mr. Xandra and I sat down sometime back in October or November and decided we needed a Garden Vision, instead of a half-assed, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have fresh vegetables and cut down on the grocery bills a little?” idea that never quite pans out. Except in zucchini. Man, if money were measured to the zucchini standard, you could call me Croesus. We drew charts. On graph paper. And we planned out how many boxes we wanted, as well as what would go in ‘em. So after the Snowpocalypse finally melted away and the sun remembered that people live here and kinda need to see it every once in a while, we knew where we were going and we could hit the ground (literally) running (metaphorically).  I’ve recently begun to adopt some of this to my writing, because next to that feeling of  writing “The End,” there’s nothing quite like the feeling of, “yeah, I know where I’m going with this.” When you’ve got headlights in the dark, you can punch the accelerator.

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Category: An Author's Life, Postcards From BFE, Writing, Writing Process | 1 Comment »
Tags: gardening, manuscript planning, plotters vs. pantsers, plotting, Writing Process

Posted By Xandra on March 26, 2010

Over the past several months, there’s been fierce debate raging over what, exactly, ebooks mean to the present and future of publishing. Publishers of traditional, paper-based books are finding it no longer optional to address a growing demand for their content in digital form. Arising from that discussion is the need for people to determine just how we want to view an ebook.

For some, an ebook is simply a different means of content delivery. They will enjoy the latest bestseller or their favorite author’s latest story in either digital or print form–it’s all the same to them. They want the story, and they want it when they want it. For others, an ebook is an opportunity to make changes in the process of publishing–for them, time spent hunting down out of print backlists of favorite authors, or missed books in a series, or even classics from the next fifteen-year overnight sensation, is only a process they engage in because it’s currently the only way to find that awesome book from 1994 whose title you can’t remember. These readers question why the access to the content requires an expiration date when it no longer requires a physical manufacturing process. And for still another group of readers, an ebook is an opportunity to change the way we experience a story.

No one is sure yet which of these groups has the closest guess to right as to what the future holds. But it would be crazy not to at least try to imagine what could be.

We still see ebooks through the reference lens of print books. But what if it doesn’t have to be that way? What ways could the benefits of instant online gratification find a way to enhance our reading experiences? What makes an ebook a unique experience, and what could make reading an ebook not simply different from reading a paperback or a hardback book, but better?

Category: An Author's Life, Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Tags: ebooks are different

Posted By Xandra on March 19, 2010

Where I live, we’re just emerging from what’s felt like a long, cold, gray-ass winter.  The air still has a bite to it, and cloudy days are more often than not still cause for thick sweaters and soup for lunch.  But today dawned sunny and while it’s still mighty chilly in the shadows, the sunshine is just warm enough to feel like it’s got a chance to unlock the ground and the world from the sluggishness of cold.  And today, instead of pulling on the thick socks and wearing the winter shoes, I left the socks off (not that I need to do laundry or anything in order to get clean socks…who, me?), and I pulled on a pair of strappy silver sandals.  Because sometimes, you have to pick out a pair of shoes that leave your toes exposed. Otherwise, your feet will never feel the sun.

Playing it safe is a net gain in writing, too.  Writing from non-controversial points of view keeps a writer from offending people.  Sensible shoes keep your toes from getting cold if you find yourself standing in the shadows or away from the sun. And yet…without running that risk, those little piggies don’t have the chance to wiggle in the sunshine, and neither do your words.

It’s always more of a risk to write about something you feel strongly about.  It also takes more work.  It isn’t safe, and it’s certainly not inoffensive (although, honestly, nothing really is totally inoffensive–there’s always somebody around to get offended if for no other reason that they may be having a bad day and you’re the unlucky random target). But the payoffs can make you feel like you’re two inches taller and your legs look hot in skinny jeans and chunky heels (I make my own fashion statement–don’t judge).

The trick is to find a kernel of passion in your writing.  That kernel of passion will often be sensitive if you poke it.  It’ll hurt. It’ll shiver at the thought of going out without a coat to protect it from the world. It’ll definitely try to hide and fool you into thinking that there’s something else you should be more passionate about.  It’ll make you think you look fine wearing the loafers with the jeans, even if your white socks make you look like you’re prone to the moonwalk and should be short one sequined glove.

But I’m wearing strappy sandals today, in spite of my toes maybe freezing off. I’m heading for sunny spots, even if I have to walk through the shade, and dammit, my piggies are gonna wiggle in the sunshine.  I’m putting strappy silver sandals on my writing, too.  My current WIP wanders further afield than I am used to.  But I’m more excited about it than I’ve been in the planning stages of a WIP in a long time, and that, my friends, is what wiggling your piggies in sunshine feels like.

Category: An Author's Life, Writing, Xandra | No Comments »
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Posted By Xandra on March 12, 2010

Anyone who’s a parent knows that it’s almost impossible for the kids not to show up in the middle of the night and burrow in next to you at least some time in their young lives.  Mine are notorious for midnight flights, and it never ceases to wake me up as soon as I hear the initial *thud.* Followed by the *thumpthumpthumpthumpthump* *bounce* and a pair of cold feet and knobby knees in my internal organs.

Whether from bad dreams, a too-cold bed–even when there’s a cat curled up on someone’s head, or “I heard a noise, Mom, our house is haunted, I swear.” (and no, the house isn’t haunted, it’s three years old and the place used to be a farm and a pasture, if we’ve got the ghosts of anything, it’s cows, squirrels, and the spirits of soybeans past, now go back to bed), my nighttime visitors will snuggle for about ten minutes, just until they fall back asleep, and then–off come the covers.  It gets me to thinking, these late-night invasions, and I’ve been thinking about covers lately.

Book covers, that is.

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Category: An Author's Life, Publishing | No Comments »
Tags: covers, ebooks are different, novel covers

Posted By Xandra on March 8, 2010

But I swear I had a great excuse.  I had a :gasp!: computer issue (easily solvable, I love linux and the community that supports it *in instantaneous realtime, no matter how late it is!*).  Computer, easily surmountable.  Two sick kids with tummy bugs…not so much.  There is no support community or quick fix for that kind of virus.  There is only commiseration from other moms who’ve weathered the vomit comets.  But kids bounce back remarkably well, and I’m grateful that they do.  It reminds me that we, too, can bounce back from setbacks.  And when gut-rot hits a manuscript, by all means, we’re better off if we let it purge itself.

As a writer, it is mega-important for you to figure out your own personal flavor and brand of gut-rot.  I know, ewwwww, right?  But writer’s gut-rot can eat into your work and your writing and your career until you wake up one day and realize that this thing you once loved, you now hate and don’t know why.  So many writer-friends have told similar stories about something in their process, their career, their writer’s life, or elsewhere that unequivocally rotted out their passion from the inside. And if something is rotting in there, it needs to change.

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Category: An Author's Life, Publishing, Writing, Writing Process, Xandra | No Comments »
Tags: Goals, writing goals, Writing Process